INTERVIEW: GRL

by Charlie Dowd

Photo by Trevor Flores

​After their stratospheric rise with hit single "Ugly Heart" and the tragic loss of bandmate Simone Battle, GRL needed a break. Fast forward a year and they are refreshed and ready to jump back into the pop game. After a year out, they've lost a couple members but added the fabulous Jazzy Mejia to their roster. We sat down with the girls to talk all things GRL, their future and what message they want to give to the world.

For our readers that may not know about GRL, could you tell us a little about the band?

Some people may know us better for songs "Ugly Heart" and our feature with Pitbull "Wild Wild Love." We used to be a 5-piece band but recently made some changes after we tragically lost our band member Simone Battle in Sept 2014. We decided to take some time off to heal after our tribute song "Lighthouse" and this Summer have reformed as a trio with new member Jazzy Mejia.

You've recently returned after taking a well-deserved break from the spotlight, what was the decision to reunite and continue with GRL?

We've had so many awesome and supportive fans who have stuck by us for so long. We got asked to do a few big shows and continuing with the group just felt right. This is what we love to do.

Welcome to new member Jazzy! How did you decide on adding Jazzy as your third member, was there an audition process or?

We've known Jazzy for such a long time. Her big sister, Natalie, was in another one of Robin Antin's girl groups, so Jazzy was basically already family to us.

We've watched her grow into an amazing talent and adding her to GRL just felt like the perfect fit.

You seem to have a loyal following in Australia, and played Slimefest recently, how was it returning to the stage in such a big way?

We are so lucky and grateful to still have the loyalty of so many amazing fans in Australia. SLIMEFEST was one for the books! There were literally thousands of fans screaming the words to every one of our songs. It was so surreal and magical.

Photo by Kenny Wormald

Your new song "Kiss Myself" is another banger to add to your long list, should we be expecting a music video for the track?

We're focusing on recording a bunch of new songs now, but we do have some killer choreography to the song, so it would be fun to shoot a video for this one.

Staying on the topic of new music, is there an album in the works? If so, how would you describe the sound?

We've been writing and recording a ton, and working on a bunch of new tracks that we love. we will have a date for the release our new single "Are We Good" shortly. It’s one of our faves so far and can’t wait to share it. The sound is still pop, but we're also veering a bit more into the R&B world.

We admire your stance on mental health awareness, what would be your advice to anyone who is struggling right now? The best general advice we can give on mental health awareness is to remember you are not alone. Everyone experiences hardships at trauma at some point in their life, and the best thing you can do when you don't know WHAT to do is reach out to someone. Talk to someone. That is the first step. There are also websites and hotlines you can reach out to for suggestions on healthy ways to manage your emotions. We work with some incredible foundations - R U OK! who are based out of Australia: https://www.ruok.org.au/ and Change Direction who are based out of the US: http://www.changedirection.org/ - Please go check them out.​Finally, what do you want to have achieved this time next year?Being in this business for a while now, we've realized that being happy is the most important achievement always...But, of course, world domination is never a bad thing! ;)